Industrial applications of agent technologies

This paper is aimed at summarizing the current state-of-the-art in the development of agent-based solutions in three areas connected with industrial production, namely in holonic control, production management and virtual enterprises. This paper shows how the results in these three sub-areas are converging and discusses how the agent-oriented technologies could provide a good background for developing a unifying approach. Two industrial applications of agent-based systems are described in some detail. The paper also presents both the positive and negative aspects of applying agent-based technologies in industry.